Data center networks incorporate racks of server computers (“servers”) to implement application programs (“applications”) for supporting their specific operational requirements, including, but not limited to, data base management applications, document and file sharing applications, searching applications, gaming applications, and financial trading applications. Such data center networks are generally expanding in terms of the number of servers incorporated therein, as well as the networking equipment needed to interconnect the servers for accommodating the data transfer requirements of the respective applications.
Conventional data center networks typically have hierarchical architectures, in which top-of-rack switches form the lowest level of the hierarchical network architecture below the next higher level which can include a plurality of Ethernet switches and/or Internet protocol (IP) routers. Each top-of-rack switch in the access layer can be connected to one or more aggregation switches and/or IP routers. The highest level of the hierarchy generally includes a plurality of IP routers (the “core switches”) that can be configured to provide ingress/egress points for the data center network. Each aggregation switch and/or IP router can be connected to one or more core switches, which, in turn, can be interconnected to one another. In such conventional data center networks, the interconnections between the racks of servers, the top-of-rack switches, the aggregation switches/IP routers, etc., are typically implemented using point-to-point Ethernet links.
Although conventional data center networks like those described above have been successfully employed, such conventional data center networks have drawbacks. For example, data communications between servers that are not co-located within the same rack may experience excessive delay (“latency”) within the data center networks, due to the multitude of switches and/or routers that the data may be required to traverse as it propagates “up,” “down,” and/or “across” the hierarchical architecture of the networks. Data communications between such servers may also experience latency within the respective switches and/or routers of the data center networks due to excessive node and/or link utilization. Further, because multiple paths may be employed to deliver broadcast and/or multicast data to different destinations within the data center networks, such broadcast and/or multicast data may experience excessive latency skew. Such latency and/or latency skew may be exacerbated as the sizes of the data center networks and/or their loads increase.
To address the foregoing shortcomings, data center networks are provided that employ optical network topologies and optical nodes to efficiently allocate bandwidth within the data center networks, while reducing the physical interconnectivity requirements of the data center networks. Such data center networks provide a hierarchy of control for controlling and provisioning computing resources within the data center networks based at least in part on the network topology and an application component topology, thereby enhancing overall application program performance.
What is needed is a method for administering the optical networks in order to provide consistent and high levels of functionality.